Today, some software applications provide quick response interfaces that provide software functions built around immediate and obvious context. For example, if a user is viewing a home screen on their device and a short message service (“SMS”) message arrives, the SMS message might appear in a popup with a text entry field through which the user can provide a quick response or can select a “close” box to dismiss and ignore the SMS message. However, there is an obvious proximate event and application in this scenario (i.e., the arrival of a message in an SMS application), a known address to reply to, and two high likelihood actions that are elevated to the user interface—more specifically, to respond or to dismiss the SMS message, with other options such as file-in-a-folder or delete not rising to the level of a common action deserving user interface attention. The SMS application relies on the context of an incoming SMS message to be aware that text entered by the user is relevant to the received SMS message. Without such context, the SMS application is unable to know that text entered by the user relates to the SMS application or whether the text might be relevant to a completely different application.
Contextual interpretation of increasing amounts of data has been used in other settings to guide increasingly accurate decisions in a search function. For example, some operating systems, such as APPLE OS X, have a global search function in which a user begins typing a string of characters and an instantaneous list of candidates narrows down to a set of selectable locally or cloud-stored documents, emails, media files, and the like with filenames or content that contain the characters. GOOGLE provides a similar search function in which a user begins typing a search string and an instantaneous list of suggestions narrows down from which the user can select an expanded string to avoid further typing. However, both of these solutions already assume an action. In APPLE OS X, the search primarily seeks to “open” a file that has attributes closely matching the search string. The search function provided by GOOGLE primarily seeks to search the World Wide Web using a string.
Contextual interpretation that refines the choice of messaging applications also exists today. A generic messaging application might accept multiple destination addresses and/or attachments. Upon receiving multiple addresses or attachments that preclude use of SMS and require use of multimedia message service (“MMS”), the messaging client might make a determination that MMS should be used, and might notify the user that such a decision is being made in order to satisfy the implicit request and approval embodied in the provided content.